Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Velutina Scarf

This design came about because Delia at Ravenwood Cashmere requested a nice men's scarf and she wanted to give one to her husband Reed for Christmas. I had already fallen in deep, deep love for a rib pattern that wound about in a seemingly random manner and an accompanying rib cable. I put the two together in a design submission to Interweave Knits for a men's vest a couple of years ago, but they didn't need it, so it sat waiting for another opportunity to be useful. I had an inkling its time had come when I decided to see how it would look when knit up in this fluffy cashmere.

It worked!

Here is another sample I have going in the same 3-ply fingering weight Ravenwood Cashmere. Keep in mind that it isn't blocked, as in Betsy's sample in the top picture, and so it looks a little more squinched.

And here is the reverse side.

Because the stitch pattern is made from twisted rib, it looks pretty cool on the back as well.

reverse side gets its extreme closeup shot

I connived this stitch pattern out of the existing ones by randomly plopping down cables here and there, and the more I worked with it, the more I saw tree bark. When it came to thinking up a name, I researched images of all kinds of tree bark and narrowed it down to oak. From there, I decided that it looked most like the bark of the Black Oak tree, the scientific name being Quercus Velutina, and I had my scarf's name.

The pattern is charted and written out and is actually a fun knit. I think it looks its best in this Ravenwood Cashmere, and if you do, too, you can order a kit with yarn and pattern from them. If you'd like to try it in another yarn, you can buy it straight from us!